January 11, 2010

Good morning. Before we kick of the week with our regularly scheduled Monday Mail, I would like to remind you that today is the last day to nominate OSS (and all your other favorite blogs like Meals for Moderns, Brokelyn, Breeder's Digest, Daily Beatz and How Fucking Romantic) for Bloggies! Not to proverbially toot our own horns too much, but may I remind you that last year we almost won one of these things? If you enjoy OSS every day, every week or every once in a while, give us a shout-out and show us some love. We’d do that for you!

Meanwhile, Josh from Fanatic says:

The Octagon’s Will Glass and Zachary Mexico met as kids in boarding school when Glass made fun of Mexico’s Green Day t-shirt. The guys huddled together in dorm rooms, late at night, drinking from warm 40’s of St. Ides and handles of Captain Morgan, listening to Motown, Astral Weeks, Guided by Voices, Dead Kennedys, and The Grateful Dead. Eventually landing in NYC, Glass and Mexico met up with bass player The Bunny, forming The Octagon and touring behind two albums.Other pursuits came calling and Mexico relocated to China - where he still spends part of the year - to write his first book, “China Underground” (Soft Skull Press, 2009) which became a bestseller in Singapore. Glass went on the road as the touring drummer for Dirty Projectors and The Bunny languished in Williamsburg, spending his days begging for money outside the Bedford Avenue L stop to support his gourmet sandwich habit.

And then, in the dark winter days of February 2009, the members of The Octagon found themselves back together and working on a new batch of songs in their dimly lit practice space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Led by the lo-fi recording expertise of Glass, the band spent three days laying down thirty tunes to analog cassette tape on two Tascam four-track recorders. The result is Warm Love and Cool Dreams Forever, an album full of Mexico’s warm Fender Mustang, Bunny’s full bass tones, and the clean and crisp jazz-inflected drumming of Glass.

The songs are concise bursts of energy – short and to the point -- showing off the band’s gift for penning simple, catchy melodies mixed with sonic and structural experimentation. It’s a cool enough sound to be represented on a boarding school kid’s t-shirt... and catchy enough for another one to make fun of him for.

Josh kinda said it all, huh? This song is awesome and the sound reminds me of a dirtier, lazier Strokes, when The Strokes were brand new. LoFi in that old school way. Strong melody. Good lyrics. I’m sold.

Also, I should add that as a kid, we played a few different variations of schoolyard handball. Weirdly, the names of these two varieties (always involving the school’s brick wall and a neon yellow/green tennis ball) were “Suicide” and “Kings.” Coincidence? I think not.

Catch The Octagon on 1/22 at Bruar Falls for their album release. They're also on an American tour right now AS WE SPEAK!

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What's the Deal?

One Sweet Song is a music blog written by Gina Pensiero, of band Palmyra.

High quality and fully eclectic, this music-blog-as-radio-station doesn't get down with payola and was started as a means to dish up One Sweet Song per business day. Life got a little crazy, which means posts got a little more sporadic, but we're sticking with the magical one song/post formula.

No fuss. No bullshit. Just one sweet song.

You'll also get context--cultural and personal--around why the song is so rad. Editorials are kept short and sweet (no pun intended).

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not reflect the views of my employer. Wahn Wahn.

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Contact/Submissions

All files posted on OSS are intended only for sampling. The only way artists get paid and indie labels survive is if you go buy their music. Please do that. If your song/the song of someone you represent is up and you don't want it to be, please let me know and I will remove it immediately.

I'm open to submissions, but I get A LOT. Please don't be mad at me when I don't write back immediately. I am not a heartless bastard.

When submitting to OSS, please send me a single. I love albums. I think albums are the shit. I'm sure your album is awesome. But this blog is about songs, so please just send me one of those. Mp3 attachments or links are fine. No downloadable single means I won't hear your music.